Colac Herald (Vic. : 1875 - 1918), Friday 30 June 1911, page 5


A DANISH PIG FARM. Mr Rider Haggard's new book dealing wvith "Rural Denmark and its Lessons" has just made its appearance. The author's tdur through Denmarki furnishes matter for instructive detail on butter and pork production, and his descriDtion of a pig farm is herewith extracted. "Some miles from Aarhus is a famous farm of 1100 acres, named Thomasminde, owned by Mr Pontoppidan, whose speciality is pigs, of which he stocks no fewer than 1200. The principle followed is to keep the pigs as near as possible to natural conditions with regard to their food, ten months being allowed to grow them to a weight of about 200 lb. The result of this systen of slow fattening is claimed as keeping the animals free from swine fever or tuberculosts. Out of 3000 pigs sold, only one has been refused by the slaughter houseo, and at the time of my visit bit ten of the 1200 were in the hospital pens. At first he usdd to insure his stock, but as none died he abandoned the precaution as a useless i expense^ _ t.as . a aln us;e

'k"3,lr Pontoppidan breaeds all his own pigs, which in race are Dabish crossed With Yorkshire. His sows are only allowed to breed five or six litters, after which they are fattened to a weight of from 400 to 500. lb. Observation has shown him.that after five or six litters the sows both eat and overlie their offspring ; also that the pigs born ,betwefin the second and the sixth litters are the strongest and do the best. His principal feeding stuff is noaize, but he also uses broken wheat or rye from the English and Black Sea mills, 500 lb of skim milk daily, turnips, kohl-rabi, swedes and nmangels. Also, the fattening pigs receive, amongst their foods, all the -blood from the Aarhus slughter houses, which is pressed into cakes and mixed with salt and borax. Of these cakes, thatl are stored in racks, nearly 1000 lb are used daily. Their cost is three-eights of a penny per lb, and they, contain 3 per cent of albumen.

"It is considered by this farmer that if it were not for the pigs his operations would be unreniunerative as compared with keeping cows only. He keeps 400 cows, in addition to theb 1200 pigs. The pug pens are arranged in a large round building, and in all my agricultural experience I have seldom seen a mnore remarkable sight than they afforded. First we went qpstairs, where live young pigs which are being 'grown on.' As we appeared among these hundreds of heads and forelegs were thrust over the tops of the styes, and from hundreds of hungry throats rose a chorus of piercing yells. The din was so tre

mendous that I was glad to escape from the place. On the ground ldoor were the pigs whose career was drawing to an end, many of them being already marked with the black spot which indicatedl that oh the 'morrow they nmust make their journeyto the slaughter house. "At that date pork was, and I believe still is, fetching .a price In Denmark that at present makes its breading there a most remunerative business--no less, indeed, that 5d per lb. nhis is paid for the animal as he walks on to the scale, -and for that reason it is customary to feed a pig as heavily as possible on the prorning of his departure. At 5,d per lb pork production is fairly remunerative, while id per lb covers all outgoing and risks. The average cost of a pig from the hour of its birth to that when it enters the biacon factory, including at allowance for labor, rent and every other expense, is here reckoned at £2/9/101, and the average price it realises is £0/6/6. I "In another part of the p?.gery are kept the great drop eared boars and

the new littered sows. Here the young pigs are weanthed by means of an ingenious cdntrivance of wooden bars, behind which they are confined, only being allowedl to the mother at stated intervals, which grow rarer until they are sufficiently hardened to be moved upstairs. Three mentwo young fellows and a Working overseer-feed all this multitude of swine, though how they manage to accomplish the task I am sure I do not know. I may add that the flies are as troublesome here as in every other piggery 2 visited in Denmark."